Posts Tagged ‘credit card’

Free Credit Report – No Credit Card

March 29th, 2011



Making sure that you have your credit report in order is absolutely vital in terms of being able to get the best deal on any type of financial product. The first step om the road is inevitably getting a copy of your report to see where you currently stand.

There are any number of places that will offer you a free credit report but you have to be careful with some of them. There has been an explosion in the last few years on the Internet of sites that will offer you a free credit report but you have to be careful as not all of them are 100% reputable.

Doing a little background research is the way to go. Fortunately the Internet is also a great place to do this research.

Once the time has arrived to look into what’s available in this specific part of the financial industry, it’s extremely important to bear in mind that quite a lot of the information that you will come across will almost certainly have originally emanated from a commercial business interests and with this as part of the process, it’s fairly obvious why it is centrally important to cross-reference your information across more than one site.

By cross-checking in this fashion with more than one source you give yourself a great opportunity of being in possession of reliable data that can help you when it is necessary to decide on what the next step should be. I do not wish to give the wrong impression as most of the companies that operate online are completely reputable but that said, it’s no harm to be on the safe side.

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Credit Card APR Explained

January 23rd, 2011



What is credit card APR? This is a common question that is often asked by those new to the credit game.

APR stands for the “annual percentage rate” which is the way of stating the rate at which you will pay in interest if you miss a payment, carry over a balance, take out a cash advance, or if you transfer one credit balance to another card. APR is the interest rate as a yearly rate.

Be aware that there are multiple types of APR. One credit card can possibly have several different APR’s. Here are some of the different types of credit card APR

Multiple APRs – Some cards come with an APR for purchases, another one for balance transfers, and still another for cash advances. Most of the time APRs for cash advances and balance transfers are going to be higher than those for purchases. (for example, 13% for purchases, 18% for balance transfers and 19% for cash advances). Tiered Credit Card APR – In this scenario interest rates are applied to the multiple different levels of the remaining balance that you have (for example you may have 14% on balances of $1-$500 and 18% on balances above $500). Penalty APR – This type of APR might get higher if you miss a payment or payments. For example, your card agreement may contain language like, “If your payment is received more than 14 days late more than one time in six months the penalty rate will be applied to your account.” Introductory APR – This means that a different rate will be applied after an introductiod expires, normally 6 months to 1 year. Delayed APR – In this type of offering a different rate is applied in the future, after you’ve had your account for some time. For example, a card company might advertise that there is “zero interest until May of next year.” Watch out for the higher APR that will be applied at that time. Sometimes it can be a major increase.

If you’re account balance even a small carry over amount, just a small raise in APR can make a big difference. So be sure to read the details and compare as many plans as possible to assure that you find the card and rate that works best for you! Many websites offer online tools that allow you to compare credit card offers in one place.

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Canceling Your Credit Card Damages Your Credit

October 11th, 2010



A big part of managing your credit is understanding what helps and hurts your credit score. If you have a good grasp of these things, you can slowly build the type of score that creates opportunities for you and saves you lots of money through lower interest rates on major purchases, such as homes and cars. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about credit scores, and one of the more common pieces of misinformation is that canceling old or otherwise unnecessary credit cards will help your score. That’s not necessarily true – here’s why:

You want your debt-to-credit ratio to work for rather than against your score. Your debt-to-credit ratio is the amount of available debt you’re currently using divided by the total amount of available credit. This ratio tends to help your score if you use less than half of your total available credit. When you cancel a card, you’re removing the credit limit on that card from your available credit.

To better illustrate this point, let’s say that you have a balance of $5,000 on a credit card with a credit limit of $10,000. Five thousand divided by ten thousand equals a debt-to-credit ratio of 50 percent. This can helps your credit score, but if you purchase a new refrigerator by charging $1,000 on the same card, your debt-to-credit ratio climbs to 60 percent and starts working against your score. If you max out that card, the percentage goes up to 100, which can really hurt your score.

In addition, your debt-to-credit ratio works the same way across all credit accounts. The credit bureaus look at your aggregate credit limit and how much of the total limit you are currently using; and if it’s at 50 percent or lower, it’s helping your score. If your ratio is anything over 50 percent, lenders start to get itchy about your risk of default. Lenders are itchy by nature, so you don’t want to further provoke their capacity for itchiness by going over 50 percent.

When you cancel a credit card or merchant card that you never use anymore, you’re reducing your amount of available credit. To keep these credit limits active, use them every once in a while; just be sure to pay them off quickly. (If you don’t use a card, the issuer will eventually cancel it anyway.)

Hopefully, this has dispelled one of the more common myths about credit scores and canceling credit cards. Hold on to those lines of credit, use them occasionally, and pay them off immediately, and they’ll keep working for your score.

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Bank Of America Locations – How To Find The Location Nearest You

September 1st, 2010



Finding bank of America locations near you really isn’t difficult nowadays. Whether you want to find it for mailing purposes, or just to drive down to it, all you have to do is go online and you will be able to find the closest one to you quickly and easily.

Obviously, Bank of America is one of the largest and most popular banks today, and hence the name, is a nationwide bank. Pretty much regardless f what part of the country you live in, there will be a bank of America location within easy driving distance of you, whether you are out in the sticks or a bustling metropolis.

Now that you know where to find the nearest bank of America locations, how do you know if they are really the best bank for your needs? First of all, you need to know what kind of services you will require from your bank, and then find out if Bank of America offers the best service in that particular area.

They might be excellent in some areas and woeful in others, so knowing this before banking with them is important to ensuring you are receiving the top quality service.

In addition to personal banking, which you immediately think of when thinking of this bank, they also offer many other financial services as well, and one of the most popular is credit cards.

Obviously, like any bank, you need to have very high credit in order to get one of these, and they don’t just pass these out like candy. Whereas you might be able to get a credit card with average to low credit elsewhere, you won’t be able to get this with bank of America.

If you are able to get one, however, you will receive an extremely competitive APR, lower than what most companies would offer you. The bank of America card is known for their excellent security measures, including the fact that your picture is actually put right on your card.

Therefore, if somebody somehow is able to steal your credit card, it is pretty much useless to them, because they won’t match the picture. One can only wonder why more companies don’t do this.

In addition, another reason that bank of America is one of the most widely used banks around is it’s online banking option. Who cares, right? Everybody offers online banking today. However, there service is second to none, and you’re about to find out why.

In order to make payments via the net, all you have to do is find a list of the bigger companies in your area (which it stores automatically) and select them in order to make a payment.

If they aren’t already listed, you will have to input their information yourself, but once they are in there, you can just pay them again and again without ever worrying about updating it. the bottom line is, finding Bank of America locations near you is not difficult at all, and if you aren’t currently doing banking with them, I’d highly recommend it.

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How to Get a Checking Account While in Chexsystems

January 31st, 2010



Welcome.

 

You are probably visiting this site because you have just learned that you are stuck in chexsystems or you have been in Chexsystems and want to know what you can do to get out of it. 

 

Who is Chexsystems?

 

Chexsystems is just like one of the 3 Credit Bureaus only this company will provide Deposit Account verification to financial institutions.If you have overdrawn on your account and the bank closed it you will be in Chexsystems. If you have any type of fraud you will be in Chexsystems.

 

How Long Will You Be In Chexsystems?

 

A very long 5 years. Unless you have paid your account and the financial institution who put you there requests its removal.Unfortunately, even after you pay your account in full to the financial institution who closed your bank account, does not mean that it will magically delete off of your Chexsystems Record. So before you pay make sure that the Financial Institution agrees beforehand to remove your file from Chexsystems.We have talked with many people in regards to being stuck in Chexsystems and the majority did pay off their account. The Financial Institutions did not remove them from Chexsystems.

 

Chexsystems the bad guys? Sorry Folks…..

 

Chexsystems is not a company that Denies your new bank account. Chexsystems is just an agency that collects information from banks about your bad past Banking History.

It is not Chexsystems fault that you are there. It could be a past mistake you made or maybe even a huge mistake made by the bank that put you there to begin with. You have rights so make sure that if you are in Chexsystems that it is Accurate.If you applied for a credit card and were denied, would you blame the Credit Reporting Agency?

 

Or would you just say ok my credit is bad that’s why I was denied. Chexsystems is basically the same type of Agency with banking institutions. If you again, messed up a checking account or savings account before and the bank closed your account, well Chexsystems gets wind of it and it is reported fair and square. Chexsystems alerts other banks to your banking history. If you find out that you are in Chexsystems, you need to contact the bank that put you there. Unless it is inaccuarate then you will have to Dispute it with Chexsystems.

 

So you’re In Chexsystems and it is accurate what can you do?

 

10 years ago you couldn’t do anything. Times have changed and so have your options.It depends on exactly what you are looking for. If you are in Chexsystems and are looking for a Checking Account with Checkbook: There is no way possible to get a checking account with checks right now without paying a fee for the company to find it for you.

 

Second Chance Checking.

 

Did you ever consider getting a Bank Account complete with Routing Number, Account Number and Debit MasterCard? This is a real bank account not a Prepaid Card. This can help you tremedously: http://www.secondchancechecking.us . This is great for people who have bad credit, chexsystems or telecheck and their employer requires Direct Deposit. Or simply for people who want the same things that people with Regular Checking Accounts have. This builds a positive credit and banking history because it is reported to the CRAs.

 

 The Debit Card, The Routing Number & of course the account number. People with checking accounts do not use checks as much as you think they do. 90% use their ATM Card or Visa Debit Card or MasterCard debit card to pay for their bills. You can do exactly the same as them by clicking the above link and signing up it is FREE.

 

If you have applied for a Bank Account and found out you were in Chexsystems:

 

Did you find out why? Do you know it is accurate? Is it inaccurate? If it is accurate the only way to get through the next 5 years is use one of the above Accounts. First order your Chexsystems report if you have no idea: You can order a copy of your report from ChexSystemsSMIf it is inaccurate visit disputes for more information.

Free ChexSystems Dispute FormsChexsystems will give you examples of Dispute forms however you can get Free Dispute Forms by going to:

 

www.freenonchexsystemsbanks.com

To sum this up if you are in Chexsystems there are alternatives. There are Second Chance Checking Accounts.

When you order your Chexsystems Report make sure that everything on your report is accurate if not by law you can dispute this information. The bank that reported you falsely will have to verify why you were put on there. If they cannot it must be removed.

If your Chexsystems Report runs true. Sadly, you are in their database for 5 years.

 

 

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Coming the new credit card … Nokia!

January 28th, 2009

It was coming from the United States a new technology that will help us to reduce the magnetic cards that we have many in the portfolio.

The technology called Near Field Communication and the first to use it will be Visa and Nokia.
With this coupled inside our cell phones will be installed this simple. A reader will allow us only bringing the phone to make payments and withdraw money from distributors.

No need to type numbers in the POS or spend the magnetic card into the reader. An identification code will enable the function on your phone and make payment.

In case of theft, thanks to this code, you cannot use the phone for a payment. Also in the case of a possible scam, now you can also trace the owner of the “means of payment” when insert a sim or installing burglar alarms for different phones equipped with GPS or not.

The technology seems very comfortable and hopefully uses it in many, but I wonder what will be standard. I.e. the spread will be only for Nokia or other manufacturers will adopt this innovation?

The idea I like and I hope will be incorporated into projects not only for all lending institutions, but also for the cards of supermarket items, video rentals, and any store that takes a magnetic card system.

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